Landry's Seafood's Flavors of New Orleans appetizer menu contains some catches and some that should be thrown back

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- If any of the seven offerings on
Landry's Seafood House's new Flavors of New Orleans appetizer menu can stand up
as an entrée it's the Shrimp Clemenceau. Plated in a dramatic and somewhat
gravity defying manner, it even looks like an entrée.

Shrimp Clemenceau ($10.99) boasts sautéed shrimp and zesty tasso
pork – so there's enough protein punch and some compelling ocean/earth contrast. Sweet
peas, and in a deft move, crisp potatoes are also in the mix, with everything
served over grilled French bread and drizzled with hollandaise sauce.

The other two Flavors of New Orleans apps that impressed us
were the Crab & Crawfish Boulettes ($11.99) and the New Orleans Crawfish
Bread ($8.99). The Boulettes resembled five posh hush puppies. That contain lump crab and crawfish tails. These were exquisitely battered and fried, and lined
up like a flight of craft beers on an oblong serving plate that was finished
with some tangy-zippy Tabasco mash remoulade and what appeared to be finely
diced red bell pepper. The Crawfish Bread also looked impressive when it hit our
table. Six French bread wedges topped with a happening mixture of crawfish
tails, tomatoes, "Louisiana spices" and mozzarella.

After those first three there was a significant falloff in
the Flavors of New Orleans apps. The Cochon de Lait ($9.99) is seared pulled
pork with onion, garlic and brandy, accompanied with some delicate shoestring
style potato, fried leek and Creole mustard beurre. Given its super-promising name,
the Crawfish Mac & Cheese ($9.99) turned out to be a disappointment. Very little
crawfish, very little flavor and the white cheddar sauce and oreccheitte pasta just
didn't come together in the way memorable mac-and-cheeses do.

The Marinated Crab Fingers ($13.99) is the most expensive of
the Flavors of New Orleans apps, available through June according to our
server, but it was also the least substantial. It felt like it was 90 percent
garnish. Although the sliced olives called to mind the trademark olive salad
found on muffalettas, the crab claws themselves just didn't have much flavor. The
Crab Remick ($8.99) - baked hot crab remoulade, bacon and mozzarella, served atop garlic toast points - tasted overtly fishy.

It took about 25 minutes to receive all our apps in the
cavernous, carpeted and nautically themed dining room at Landry's Huntsville
location. A mural along one wall depicts an astronaut amid an underwater tableau.
At first just six of the seven appetizers came out – our server had to be
reminded we'd also ordered the Crab Fingers, but thankfully she'd put in for
that app at the same time as the rest but just hadn't remembered it. No biggie.
The server returned several times for drink refills and to clear empty serving plates.

Founded in Katy, Texas, Landry's maintains about 400
properties worldwide, according to landrysseafood.com. There's a "directions" button
on the Huntsville section of the restaurant's website. You should probably click
on that button before attempting a first-time visit to the Huntsville Landry's sizable,
distinctive space, which while highly visible alongside -1-565 and near the
U.S. Space & Rocket Center, can be a bit confusing if you're trying to actually
reach Landry's via means other than helicopter.

Once you do successfully make it to Landry's peninsula-like
grounds, one could do much worse for a happy hour than sharing some Clemenceau,
Crawfish Bread and Boulettes with friends over a couple of draft beers,
including some from local breweries Blue Pants and Straight to Ale, available on
tap at Landry's wooden L-shaped bar.